Workforce Efficacy™ – Why it’s Better than Employee Engagement

One company’s story:

The executive team was stumped. The employee engagement scores weren’t budging. Despite 80% turnover in the senior team, a concerted employee communication strategy emphasizing transparency and round after round of employee feedback sessions. Benefits had been beefed up, compensation reviewed and managers were trained. Still, engagement scores flagged. Major themes included a lack of trust, perceived lack of development opportunities, and lack of communication. 

Sound familiar? 

We know employee engagement matters and we attempt to measure and manage it using all the latest tools. So why the lack of progress?  Because we can’t mass motivate. Because motivation and engagement is individual and situational. Because we’re not including the one person who can impact it. The employee.

The executive team had done great work on mission, vision, goals and objectives. They had considered culture and  management and total rewards. and while engagement scores stagnated, entitlement seemed to bloom. The trajectory was disheartening. 

Then they turned it around using three critical levers:Leadership: the executive team took the bold move of defining what leadership qualities were necessary in this stage of the organization’s life-cycle. They took a baseline measurement and set about improving. 

Management: managers were trained on and held accountable for setting expectations; providing real-time, frequent, supportive guidance and managing staff up or out assertively according to defined qualities tied to organizational goals.

Employees: were trained on and held accountable for their own motivation and engagement and guided in the development of personal actions they could take to improve their own experience. 

The result? Greater empowerment at all levels to measure and manage the effectiveness of the total workplace. This is Workforce Efficacy™: a condition where organizational goals are met through a well-managed, productive and engaged workforce – at all levels.

For more Workforce Efficacy™ Initiatives, consider joining UPschool. UPschool provides 12 months of access to solutions like this along with expert guidance and coaching/mentoring. As an UPschool member you also have access to the What Drives You? Program that uncovers your unique motivation factors, helping you to ignite your motivation & unlock your best capabilities.